Brad Treliving rips his team, but backs his head coach in press conference today

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving held a press conference this morning to discuss the sad state of his team, following a dreadful 8-9-2 start.

“We’re not where we want to be or where we envision to be,” Treliving said. “Obviously, we’ve underperformed to this point.”

Leafs fans have been critical of head coach Craig Berube but Treliving doesn't think that his coach is the problem. The real problem is the team's lack of intensity.

“I think there’s been too much vanilla with our team,” Treliving said. “I think you can count on one hand how many full, complete games we’ve had. I believe in Craig and his messaging,” Treliving said. “Craig didn’t become a bad coach overnight.”

“I’ve got all the faith in our coach right now,” Treliving said, “so I don’t look at that as the issue.”

Treliving himself also shouldered some of the blame for his team's performance. He did say however that he won't be forced into making a panicked decision.

“The reality of the business is you’re not trading your way out of problems,” Treliving said. “We’re not just gonna go panic and start throwing things overboard just to do something.”

It's clear from Treliving's words that no magical solution is coming, either via a coaching change or via a blockbuster trade. This is a classic case of a GM putting his players on notice.

“Put anybody in the uniform,” he added, “and (we’re) playing the way we’re playing, we’re probably gonna have the same result.”